Italian Forces in World War II
When it comes to World War II, most historians cover the military actions of the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Germany, Japan or Russia. Events associated with the Italian war effort are usually limited to criticism. In post-war Italy, authors like Antonino Trizzino accused the Italian admirals of being traitors. His accusation helped destroy the reputation of the Italian Armed Forces in North Africa, until the British Enigma machine became common knowledge decades later. Claims of Italian lack of military successes and valour in combat do not stand up to scrutiny when official records of the campaigns in North Africa, France, the Balkans and Russia are closely examined."There were some courageous efforts by Italian units against Australians at Alamein, but these have gone largely unnoticed in Australian writings ... In wartime and published Australian accounts of Alamein actions, it is not always possible to determine whether "the enemy" referred to was German or Italian ... However, the lack of credit probably derives more from a desire to inflate Australian achievements, and an unwillingness to acknowledge reverses against Italians." Fighting the Enemy, Mark Johnston, pp. 12-13, Cambridge University Press, 2006]"Jokes about Italy's lack of military prowess and faint-heated approach to combat also did not stand up to scrutiny when he examined records of campaigns such as North Africa, Greece, the Balkans and Russia." Italian forces in WW2 were not soft and Mussolini wasn't a clown, revisionist historian claims Balkans In October 1940, Benito Mussolini declared war on Greece. Attempts by the Italian Army to invade Greece ended in stalemate. North Africa The Italian invasion of British Egypt was initially to coincide with Operation Sealion, the aborted German invasion of Great Britain in 1940. When it became apparent to Mussolini that Sealion was postponed indefinitely, he ordered Marshal Rodolfo Graziani to launch his 10th Army, into Egypt from Italian Libya. Graziani led his numerically superior Italian force across the border in September 1940 against a smaller but highly mobile British rearguard and supporting Egyptian Frontier Guards Division. The invasion was halted, and by December of that year the Italian forces in Egypt were on the defensive. Although outnumbered, General Archibald Wavell, with much support from the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force operating from Malta, ordered a British counter-offensive on 9 December 1940, Operation Compass. The Italians suffered 100,000 POWs and were pushed back more than 800km (500 miles). In late January 1941, the British Commonwealth forces attacked General Ferdinando Cona's 20th Corps and captured Derna, a town of 10,000 Italian nationals, but only after much fierce fighting."Jan. 30.—The third major Italian bastion to fall in Libya—Derna, 175 miles west of the Egyptian frontier—was occupied today by British imperial troops after four days of the bitterest resistance offered by the Fascists in the whole of the African campaign. The town had been defended by less than 10,000 Italians, British sources disclosed, but they fought with a violence encountered nowhere else in General Sir Archibald P. Wavell's long continued thrust to the west." British Take Derna After Fierce Fight, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 31 January 1941 In February 1941, German General Erwin Rommel arrived in Tripoli, Libya, and over the next month assembled a mixed German division with panzers and crack motorized infantry, to give the Italians the firepower and experience needed to defeat the British. He assumed command of the Deutsches Afrika Korps (Afrika Korps or DAK) and with only 20 Bf 110s and 60 Ju 87s"By the end of February 1941, 5th Squadra Aerea had more than 120 serviceable aircraft in Tripolitania, while the Luftwaffe had only 80 (20 Bf 110s and 60 Ju 87s). With this modest air support, Gen Rommel began an offensive on 24 March, and by 13 April had recaptured all of Cyrenaica with the exception of Tobruk. In the Skies of Europe: Air Forces Allied to the Luftwaffe 1939-1945, Hans Werner Neulen, p. 48, Crowood, 2000, he received much needed help from the Regia Aeronautica in Libya to force back the exhausted British Commonwealth forces."The Royal Air Force had sent the best squadrons in the Middle East to support the operations in Greece, leaving the bombers and fighters of the Regia Aeronautica a free hand to harass the retreating British mercilessly. Field Marshal: The Life and Death of Erwin Rommel, Daniel Allen Butler, p. 210, Casemate, 2015 The Italian Stukas made their debut in North Africa on 11 January 1941 in conjunction with German dive-bombers from X Fliegerkorps, Italian pilots crippling the British aircraft-carrier HMS Illustrious with 1,000 pound bombs"In the afternoon, Ju.87s from the 237 Squadriglia scored a direct hit on the aircraft carrier and forced her to leave the formation and head towards Malta for shelter and repairs." Italian Stukas, 1940-42"Around midday on January 10, waves of Italian air force Ju87 Stukas attacked the ship, and six or seven thousand-pound bombs hit their target, set fire to aviation fuel below decks and destroyed the carrier's steering system, the attack took only ten minutes." Aces, Warriors and Wingmen, Wayne Ralph, p. 15 , John Wiley & Sons, 2008, destroying the rear-liftL’Attività Aerea Italo Tedesca nel Mediterraneo, Francesco Mattesini, Ufficio Storcico dell’Aeronautica, 2a Edizione, 2003and forcing the carrier to limp back to Malta for repairs, allowing the safe arrival of the Afrika Korps in February. Although Rommel’s example and German military doctrine certainly helped the Italian Supreme Command regain much of Libya, the Italian fighters and bombers also played a significant role in forcing the Royal Navy to abandon the port of Benghazi, the Allied forward supply base in Libya."Italian aircraft bombed the port of Benghazi, Libya, so badly that the British had to abandon it as a supply base." World War II Sea War, Volume 3: The Royal Navy is Bloodied in the Mediterranean, Donald A Bertke, Gordon Smith, Don Kindell, p. 261, Lulu Press, 2012"The Australians pressed on the heels of the Italian Tenth Army as it passed through Benghazi. ... There was virtually no enemy air activity, however, in this battle but, within a few days, Italian aircraft began bombing Benghazi which was in British use as a forward supply point." Anti-aircraft artillery, 1914-55, Volume 4, N. W. Routledge, Brassey's, 1994 The Italian Army Ariete Armoured Division and Brescia and Trento Motorized Infantry Divisions arrived in North Africa in February 1941 along with Rommel's Afrika Korps (DAK). The Ariete was composed of 6,949 men, 163 tanks, 36 field guns, 61 anti-tank guns. Rommel had a total of 100,000 Italians, 1,000 Italian guns and 151 Italian aircraft under his command. He also had 7,000 Italian trucks supplying munitions to the frontlines. During Rommel's first desert offensive, it was the Ariete Armoured Division and 8th Bersaglieri Regiment who forced the Australian 9th Division to abandon Benghazi"Rommel decided to make a bid for all of Cyrenaica in a single stroke, although the only support for his Germans was two weak Italian divisions. He ordered a double envelopment, sending the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion straight along the Via Balbia toward Benghazi, while directing the 5th Panzer Regiment and the Italian Ariete Armored Division (sixty tanks) across the chord of the Cyrenaican bulge to El Mechili, just south of the "Green Mountain" of Jebel el Akdar. If the panzers continued northward, they could block the British retreat along the coast. The effect was instantaneous; the British hurriedly evacuated Benghazi and fell back in confusion." How Great Generals Win, Bevin Alexander, p. 248, W. W. Norton & Company, 2002, a city with a population of 50,000, and obtained Rommel's first victory in North Africa, with the capture of the British fortress of Mechili and 3,000-strong garrison on 8 April 1941."The victory must have been especially sweet for the men of the Ariete Division, partly as recompense for past humiliations at British hands, and partly because it was an all-Italian triumph; Generalmajor Streich, Oberstleutnan Dr. Olbrich and Panzer Regiment 5 arrived too late to take part in the action and Gambier-Parry actually surrendered to Colonna Montemurro." Tobruk: The Great Siege, 1941–42, William F. Buckingham, Random House, 2010"On April 8, the Afrika Korps completed the destruction of the 2nd Armoured Division. Major General Michael D. Gambier-Parry, the commander of the 2nd Armoured, and Brigadier Vaughn, the commander of the Indian 3rd Motor Brigade, were captured, along with 3,000 of their men." Rommel's Desert Commanders: The Men who Served the Desert Fox, North Africa, 1941-1942, Samuel W. Mitcham, p. 18, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007It was also the units of the Ariete, Trieste, Bologna, Brescia, Pavia and Trento Divisions that actually manned the actual siege lines around Tobruk, capturing several strongpoints on 1 May"La sera del 29 il 1° plotone della 3a, agli ordini del Sototenente Ernesto Betti, andò in azione con un gruppo comandato dal Tenente dei Bersaglieri Melis. Questo reparto era costituito di un plotone Arditi dell'8° Bersaglieri e di 2 carri M13. Guastatori aprirono un varco nel campo minato protetto da filo spinato, antistante la Ridotto R3, I'assaltarono e la conquistarono utilizzando lanciafiamme e cariche cubiche ... Un commento al Bollettino di Guerra, trasmesso alle 13:00 del 10 maggio, informava che reparti del Genio Guastatori avevano espugnato 5 fortini della cerchia di Tobruk." Genio Guastatori, Silvestri Angioni Lombardi , p. 47, Edizioni R.E.I., 2015 and 16 May"... il reparto tedesco penetrò profondamente nel campo minato ma fu scoperto e fatto segno di una forte resistenza nemica. Essendo venuto a mancare l'effetto sorpresa i Sturpioneer tedeschi subirono gravissime perdite. Riuscirono a conquistare la posizione ma non riuscivano a tenerla, causa i contrattacchi delgi Australiani. A questo punto il Maggiore Franceschini, di sua iniziativa, mando la 3a ad attacare sul fianco gli Australiani mentre la 4a si oppose frontalmente ai nemici.Cosi le due compagnie conquistarono la quota. I tedeschi, fortemente provati, ebbero oltre 100 caduti, si ritirarono lasciando i soli Guastatori a presidiare la quota. Il Maggiore Betz, informo il comando del comportamiento dei Guastatori, Qualche giorno piu tardi arrivo Rommel, per vistare il reparto, si fece dare 4 nomi e li premio con la Coce di ferro II classe: Ten. Mario Pazzaglia, Ten. Aroldo Anzani, Sten, Rolando De Angelis e Serg. Mario Venturi." Genio Guastatori, Silvestri Angioni Lombardi , pp. 50-51, Edizioni R.E.I., 2015along with 500 Australian soldiers. During Operation Brevity and Operation Battleaxe in May and June 1941, Italian soldiers under the command of fine Italian officers (Colonel Ugo Montemurro and Major Leopoldo Pardi) stood their ground and fought British tanks with anti-tank guns, giving and taking losses and severely blunting the British armoured offensives. In August 1941, Colonel Maximilian von Herff, commander of the German 115th Regiment and spokesman of the Afrika Korps formally congratulated the Bersaglieri anti-tank gunners and protecting riflemen, saying they defended Halfaya Pass "...with lionlike courage until the last man against stronger enemy forces. The greatest part of them died faithful to the flag."''Italians' Bravery Praised By Nazi Chief in Africa, New York Times, 5 August 1941 During Operation Crusader in November 1941, it was the ''Ariete Armoured Division and 8th Bersaglieri Regiment who defeated the British 7th "Desert Rats" Armoured Division at Bir el Gub, knocking out 40 Crusader tanks and derailing the British armoured attack in the process. During Operation Venezia, it was the Ariete who ploughed through the British-officered 3rd Indian Brigade on 27 May 1942"At 0715, Ariete Division ... assaulted 3rd Indian Motor Brigade at Point 171 ... the defenders put up a gallant fight before falling back ... They had knocked out fifty-two tanks ... but had lost eleven officers and 200 men killed and thirty officers and 1,000 men prisoners, including an Admiral, no less. The Early Battles of Eighth Army, Adrian Stewart, p. 69, Stackpole Books, 2010and fought off repeated British armoured counter-attacks.Ariete at GazalaWith Rommel's panzer divisions completely surrounded and out of fuel and water at the start of the Axis drive that would result in the fall of Tobruk on 21 June, the Trieste came to their rescue, thus saving Rommel's Afrika Korps from an early exit in the North African Campaign."At this time the British thought they had Rommel cornered and he himself contemplated surrender, but the Italian 'Trieste' Division managed to open a route through the minefield and get a supply column to him." Engagements - 1942 The capture of the Mersa Matruh fortress in late June 1942 is often credited to the German 90th Light Division but the real damage was in fact done by the gunners of the Italian Brescia and Trento, who stuck to their guns despite the fierce British air attacks, and the Littorio Armoured Division who along with the Bersaglieri Corps overran 1,000 Gurkhas""It took an entire Italian corps and several weeks to round the Gurkhas up, some having got as far as Sollum on the frontier." The Second World War: A Military History, Gordon Corrigan, p. 214, Atlantic Books Ltd, 2010"Among them were the entire 2/7th Gurkhas who had fought nonstop for two days until, isolated from the rest, their ammunition simply ran out ... It was a sorry tale, too, for 2/3rd and 2/8th, who had an almighty dash to reinforce positions in the western desert as Rommel advanced from Tobruk along the coast towards Egypt, heading for Alexandria ... There were many casualties and prisoners taken, although around 280 managed to escape and find their way to El Alamein, 100 miles (160 kilometres) away... " The Gurkhas, John Parker, Hachette, 2013regrouping on the outskirts before surrounding and penetrating the British fortress during the Battle of Mersa Matruh, capturing another 6,500 defenders at bayonet point. The Bersaglieri soon afterwards shepherded into captivity another 1,000 disoriented New Zealanders who had lost their way during the fighting. The main Axis defences of the El Alamein front were formed by the Bologna, Pavia, Trieste, Trento, Sabratha and the Folgore Airborne Division, supported by the Ariete, Littorio Armoured Divisions, Bersaglieri Corps and Rommel's Afrika Korps. As noted in "A Pint of Water Per Man" by US War Correspondent Harry Zinder from TIME magazine and several other witnesses, it was the Italians from the Littorio"La mattina del 2 novembre, dopo il sacrificio di un’intera divisione corazzata, la Littorio, che nella notte si era frapposta insieme ai pezzi da 88 tedeschi per cercare di fermare la 9° inglese dipingendo una delle pagine più eroiche della Seconda Guerra Mondiale." El-Alamein: la battaglia che consacrò il valore del soldato italianoand Ariete"Soon after midday, ten miles southwest of the Aqqaqir ridge, 22 Armoured Brigade came up against the tanks and antitank screen of the Italian rearguard, Ariete Division. Waller had yet another portee shot from under him, but he, Bill Ash, Alf Reeves and Sid dug the 6-pounder in and brought it to bear on the M13s that stood in the way. For most of the rest of the day they slugged it out until finally, under the constant pounding, Ariete broke and ran, abandoning equipment everywhere. The southern flank of Rommel's defences had been utterly destroyed. The men they had fought were the Bersaglieri, mobile light infantry like themselves, supposedly an élite bunch. The cock-feather plumes in their helmets did not look so jaunty now as they lay twisted on the ground. The riflemen dug graves, They found piles of propaganda postcards, men in feathered hats marching towards Cairo. There was a songbook too. Waller went through it with Bill, trying to make out the meaning of the lyrics. 'L'Addio del Bersaglieri'." End of the Beginning, Phil Craig, Tim Clayton, Hachette, 2012Divisions who stubbornly manned the 47mm"Major Eveleigh's own tank was hit and set ablaze at point blank range by a troop of Italian 47mm guns. He bailed out with his turret crew, until the armour plate became too hot to touch, desperately struggled to free the jammed hatches of his driver and co-driver, to no avail. Aware that the Italian gunners were shooting at his gunner and operator with small arms, he emptied his revolver at them. At this point Lieutenant Charles Dorman, one of his troop leaders, seeing what was happening, attacked the Italians from a flank and wiped them out. The rest of the regiment had now come up and become heavily engaged in a series of personal close-quarter duels with the numerous gun positions ... During this phase of the action the regiment accounted for fifteen anti-tank guns, four field guns and five tanks, but by 0710 it had itself been reduced to seven tanks while only four of its officers remained alive and unwounded." Iron Fist, Bryan Perrett, Hachette, 2012and 90mm"Some of the credit given to the “eighty-eights” as a deadly long-range tank-killer in North Africa actually goes to the superficially similar Italian cannone da 90/53. This 90mm antiaircraft gun was one of the better Italian weapons ... over 500 produced between 1941 and 1943 ..." The Big Book of Gun Trivia, Gordon Rottman, Bloomsbury, 2013"Italian reinforcements also included 105mm guns and 90mm antiaircraft guns, which could perform as well as the German '88' in an anti-tank role" El Alamein, Bryn Hammond, Bloomsbury, 2012anti-tank guns and supporting field guns"Gli artiglieri della Littorio dopo nove giorni di strenua lotta difesero ancora stoicamente i pezzi e con il loro sacrificio scrissero una delle più belle pagine di gloria dell'arma." Ferrea Mole Ferreo Cuore, Dino Campini, Soldiershop, 2015"The new (Littorio) division had a smaller compliment of 6,500 officers and men, but it had additional firepower: twelve more 105mm artillery pieces, eight brand new 90mm AA guns - the Italian equivalent of the German 88mm and just as deadly in an anti-tank role, twenty-six more 20mm AA guns, and twenty-four new Semoventi" Mussolini's Elite Armoured Divisions, Ian Walker, Crowood, 2012during the Second Battle of El Alamein, destroying Brigadier John Cecil Currie's 9th Armoured Brigade at Tel el Aqqaqir and covering the German retreat. Italian troops were the last defenders in the Tunisian Campaign and the 5th and 7th Bersaglieri Regiments were Rommel's spearhead during the Battle of Kasserine Pass. Along with the Centuaro Armoured Division"At 4:30 P.M., 20 February, Axis troops rolled through Kasserine Pass. A battalion of the Centauro Division headed west on the road to Tebessa ... The battlegroup from the 10th Panzer Division under Fritz von Broich followed the Centauro battalion into the pass but headed north following the branch road toward Thala." Exit Rommel: The Tunisian Campaign, 1942-43, Bruce Watson, p. 102, Stackpole Books, 2006, the Bersaglieri rolled up Colonel Anderson Moore's 19th Combat Engineers Regiment holding the mountain pass and Highway 13"Axis forces also made a breakthrough on Highway 13, where the Italians of the Centauro Division spearheaded the attack. In the early morning hours, the Italians pressed their offensive, broke through the remains of the American line, and continued up Highway 13." Facing The Fox, with 2,450 Allied soldiers falling into Italian hands POWs. During the Battle of Kasserine Pass, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel drove up to get the latest intelligence from General Karl Bülowius confirming the role of the Bersaglieri that had smashed the American lines, "Next morning, the 21st February, I drove up to the Kasserine Pass to inspect the destroyed American tanks. A long column of captured armoured troop-carriers was moving back through the pass, some of them still filled with American prisoners … Buelowius told me that the elan of the Bersaglieri had served us very well during the attack. Their commander had unfortunately been killed."THE ROMMEL PAPERSAs German morale crumbled during the Battle of Tunis and the entire Afrika Korps ceased contesting the American advance"Maj. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, commanding II Corps, had originally planned to have Truscott's 3rd Division relieve the battle-weary 1st ID. However, as Truscott was moving his division forward to effect that relief, Bradley contacted him on the night of the fifth and told him that General Harmon had requested additional infantry to support his division's attack on a strongly defended German position on the peninsula east of Bizerte, and directed that Truscott send an infantry regiment to the Ferryville area for attachment to the 1st AD. Bradley had also ordered that an infantry regiment from the 9th ID and additional field artillery and antiaircraft join Harmon's division for the attack. Truscott's regiment was to attack the following morning. Truscott joined Harmon at his commando post southeast of Ferryville early the next morning, and after breakfast the two set out on a reconnaissance mission to ascertain how far forward Truscott's force could assemble for the attack. As they traveled they found that Harmon's troopers and their tanks were already in possession of the entire peninsula excepting the high ridge overlooking the Mediterranean, from which there came no sounds of enemy fire. It was obvious to Harmon and Truscott that "the battle in Tunisia was all but done and that no large force would be required to clear the ridge." Dogface Soldier: The Life of General Lucian K. Truscott, Jr, By Wilson A., Heefner, p. 101, University of Missouri Press, 2010, the Italian 1st Army under General Giovanni Messe continued to fight for another week, derailing the advance of the 2nd New Zealand Division from Tebourba and defeating all attacks from the British 56th "Black Cat" Division"The New Zealanders around Takrouna estimated that 20,000 enemy were still in front of them, so SRY supported the newly arrived 56 (Black Cat) Division fresh from Syria in an attack on the 11th/12th May. Alas there was no success and many casualties." Monty's Marauders, Patrick Delaforce, p. 133, Pen and Sword, 2008, Free French and Moroccan Goums "On May 12th this Italian force was still resisting from positions just north of Enfidaville. A French division attacking their right was repulsed and then counterattacked. The Air Force, being called upon for aid, made a strong bombing attack at 1530, supported by all the artillery whose fire could be brought to bear." Finale in Tunisia, Colonel Conrad H. Lanza, p. 488, The Field Artillery, July 1943on 11 and 12 May. In his autobiography, Panzer ace Otto Carius (who destroyed more than 150 tanks) defended the professionalism, loyalty & courage the Italian tankers, Bersaglieri and supporting infantry often displayed in the desert. Referring to their ancient days of Roman glory, he explained that the Italians in general had fought well for "Lions do not give birth to lambs." Russia General Francesco Zingales's Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia (Italian Expeditionary Corps or CSIR) was tasked with securing"The CSIR was charged with taking certain strategic sectors of the Dnieper region ... The Italians helped drive the Soviet Army back several hundred miles across the Dnieper and Bug rivers." (The American Philatelist, Volume 108, Issues 1-6, p. 235, American Philatelic Association., 1994and defending vital bridgeheads across the Dnieper and Bugs Rivers for the German invaders. The Italian Bersaglieri spearheads successfully completed their tasks on 12 August 1941 and helped drive the Russian Army back several hundred miles."The Germans ordered the Pasubio to advance toward the Dnieper River under the command of the 111th Germany Infantry Division. General Messe was charged with spearheading the assault ... This operation, whose aim was to bar the road to Soviet troops retreating eastward, was successfully completed on 11 and 12 August." Mussolini Warlord, H. James Burgwyn, p. 19, Enigma Books, 2013"The entire corps attacked across the river, using Bersaglieri as the spearhead, and quickly had the Reds on the run." The Forgotten Axis: Germany's Partners and Foreign Volunteers in World War II, J. Lee Ready, p. 147, McFarland, 1987 From 20 to the 27 August, the CSIR and Regia Aeronautica fought off repeated Russian counterattacks aimed at breaking through the Italian-held bridgeheads."From the 20th to the 26th of August Italian Forces have been subjected to extremely fierce Soviet attacks along the Don River. The Bersaglieri, Cavalry and Black Shirts have untiringly repulsed the attacks which wave after wave were launched in the desperate attempt to break through the Italian lines." Il Marco Polo, Issues 13-14, p. 126, Shanghai, 1941"On 27 August 1941 the Italian air contingent, the Comando Aviazione del CSIR, made its combat debut: the Macchi MC200 pilots of the 22nd Fighter Group shot down six S-B2 Bombers and two I-15 fighters over Dnepropetrovksk. The Regia Aeronautica also helped the Luftwaffe to defend the Dnepropetrovsk bridgehead against Red Army attacks." Regio Esercito: The Italian Royal Army in Mussolini's Wars, 1935-1943, Patrick Cloutier , p. 109, Lulu Press, 2013"On this day the Italian airmen covered the Dnepropetrovsk bridgehead and in their first air combat they claimed six SBs and two 1- 16s, plus two probables each." Barbarossa: The Air Battle July-December 1941, Christer Bergström, p. 67, Midland/Ian Allan, 2007 In September 1941, the CSIR overran several Russian units near Petrikovka, capturing 15,000 defenders."In late September 1941 they were even able to encircle some sizeable Red Army units near Petrikovka. The Italians took more than 10,000 prisoners of war." The Unknown Eastern Front: The Wehrmacht and Hitler's Foreign Soldiers, Rolf-Dieter Müller, p.73, I.B.Tauris, 2014"Degno coronamento e premio della brillante azione furono un vivo elogio del generale von Kleist ed il conferimento della Croce di ferro di I Classe al Comandante del C.S.I.R. generale Messe. La via era aperta, ora, a nuovi felici sviluppi dell'avanzata alleata, e il nastro spumeggiante del Donez, già raggiunto nel sno corso superiore, non tardava a segnare la linea di provvisoria demarcazione tra le forze dell'Asse e quelle nemiche. Il primo ciclo di operazioni C.S.I.R. si concludeva, cosi vittoriosamente ed un indice sicuro ne erano anche le cifre del bottino da esso raccolto : 15.000 fucili, un centinaio di mitragliatrici, 30 tra cannoni e mortai, 50 automezzi,5.00 cavalli. Ad oltre 15.000 ammontavano i prigionieri." Il Secondo Anno di Guerra, Ministero della Cultura Popolare, p. 66, Roma, 1942 In October 1941, the 25th Bersaglieri Battalion forced the Russian 383rd Rifle Division to abandon the city of Stalino"The situations for the Soviets became very serious on the northern flank of the 383rd Rifle Division, around the suburban railroad station of Stantsia Stalino, where the Italians were advancing. With the capture of Grishino and Grodovska from the 296th Rifle Division the Pasubio Division had maneuvered to the north of the Celere Division, thus securing the left flank of the Bersaglieri and cavalrymen. General Marazzini decided it was an opportune time to attack the 383rd Rifle Division's unprotected flank, in the viciniity of Yasinovataya. A reinforced battalion from the 291st Rifle Regiment, under 1st Lieutenant Shcherbak, was sent to the threatened area. The Soviet battalion fought bitterly to prevent an Italian breakthrough and delayed them long enought to allow the "Miners" Division to retreat. Nevertheless, the XX Bersaglieri Battalion captured Stalino Station. Threatened by the Italians to the north, and with Germans vanguards already in Stalino, the Russians had no choice but to abandon the city." Regio Esercito: The Italian Royal Army in Mussolini's Wars, 1935-1943, Patrick Cloutier, p. 67, Lulu Press, 2010, earning the admiration of the 1st Panzer Group's commander, General Ewald von Kleist and Adolf Hitler." The CSIR also played a significant role in the capture of Stalino in October 1941, earning the praise of the German First Panzer Group's commander, General (later Field Marshal) Ewald von Kleist, and even Hitler himself." Germany and the Axis Powers from Coalition to Collapse, Richard L. DiNardo, p. 127, University Press of Kansas, 2005 In November 1941. the Pasubio Division overran the Russian defences in the Donets Basin, forcing the Russians to fall back another 100 miles towards Voroshilovgrad, on the Donets River."Two infantry battalions of the Pasubio Division broke through the Soviet line in the Donets Basin yesterday after two days of hard fighting in a blizzard and intense cold and forced the Russians to fall back toward Voroshilovgrad, 100 miles north of Rostov, on the Donets River The Russians rushed reinforcements from the north and east until they had amassed four divisions to halt the Italian advance, but the Italians continued to push ahead." The New York Times, 15 November 1941 General Italo Gariboldi's 8th Army, formed in July 1942, fought as part of the German 29th Army Corps of Army Group B, with the 6th Bersaglieri Regiment fighting to victory"Le perdite del 6° Bersaglieri nello scontro di Ivanowka ammontarono a circa 400 fra morti e feriti. L'avversario ne ebbe almeno altrettanti, oltre a circa 1000 prigionieri." Fronte russo, c'ero anch'io, Giulio Bedeschi, p. 287, Mursia, 1983"Con la occupazione completa del grande bacino minerario di Krasnij-Luch e con la cattura di circa 4000 prigionieri, ma anche con la perdita di oltre 90 caduti e dispersi e di oltre 540 feriti, in gran parte del 6° Bersaglieri." L'Italia in Guerra: Il 3o Anno, 1942, Romain Rainero, Antonello Biagini, Commissione italiana di storia militare, p. 286, Commissione italiana di storia militare, 1993in the Italian drive to Ivanowka and Krasnij Lutsch in July 1942, capturing 30,000 Russian soldiers and partisans."Ma la gran massa dei prigionieri che in certe fasi delle operazioni affluivano a questi campi rese praticamente difficile, se non impossibile, un sostanziale miglioramento: ricordo, ad esempio, che nei mesi di luglio-agosto del 1942 nel campo di Millerowo, con un'organizzazione logistica molto primitiva, furono concentrati oltre 30.000 prigionieri, con le conseguenze che è facile immaginare." La Guerra al Fronte Russo: il Corpo di spedizione italiano in Russia (CSIR), Giovanni Messe, p. 87, Mursia, 2005 However in December 1942, the Ravenna and Cosseria Divisions and supporting Sforzesca Division, despite prolonged fighting in the Italian forward lines, were unable to contain General Nikolai Vatutin's 17th, 18th and 25th Tank Divisions"Contrary to German efforts to paint the Italians as scapegoats, the Cosseria and Ravenna Divisions put up unexpectedly tough resistance, forcing Valutin to commit three of his four tanks corps before he finally got his breakthrough." Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1941-1942, Robert Forczyk, Pen and Sword, 2014during the Battle of Stalingrad. Heavily outnumbered and out-gunned, most of the Italian 8th Army divisions were destroyed in the fighting withdrawal of the next few weeks. Sicily At the Casablanca Conference, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt discussed ways of knocking Italy out of the war. It was eventually decided to launch Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, an island south-west of Italy. It was hoped that if Sicily was taken Benito Mussolini would be ousted from power. It was also argued that a successful invasion would force Adolf Hitler to send troops from the Eastern Front and help to relieve pressure on the Russian Army. On 10 July 1943, the British 8th Army landed at five points on the south-eastern tip of Sicily and General George Patton's US 7th Army at three beaches to the west of the British forces. The Allied troops met stiff opposition and Patton and his troops quickly took Gela, Licata and Vittoria. The British landings were also unopposed and Syracuse was taken on the the same day. General Patton now moved to the west of the island and the Italo-German Army was forced to retreat to behind the Simeto River. Patton took Palermo on 22 July cutting off 50,000 Italian troops in the west of the island. Patton now turned east along the northern coast of the island towards the port of Messina. Meanwhile, the US 1st and 3rd Infantry Divisions attacking the Etna Line, were being held up by the 15th and 29th Panzer Grenadier Divisions and Aosta, Assietta and Livorno Divisions. The Americans carried out several amphibious landings to cut off the Axis defenders but they were unable to stop the evacuation across the Messina Straits to the Italian mainland. This included 40,000 German and 60,000 Italian troops, as well as 10,000 vehicles and 47 tanks. Liberation By the end of 1942 Italy was totally dependent on Germany. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Galaezzo Ciano, became increasingly frustrated with the way Mussolini was running the country. After a series of heated arguments with Mussolini and evidence of collusion, Ciano resigned in February 1943. The Allied invasion of Sicily created serious problems for Benito Mussolini. It was now clear that the Allies would use the island as a base for invading Italy. A meeting of the Fascist Grand Council was held on 24th July and Ciano got support for his idea that Italy should sign a separate peace with the Allies. The following day King Victor Emmanuel III told Mussolini he was no longer in control, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, declared martial law and placed Mussolini under arrest. On 3 September 1943, General Bernard Montgomery and the 8th Army landed at Reggio and the British 1st Parachute Division at Taranto. These landings faced a heavy attack from the Regia Aeronautica."On September 4, 1943, they inflicted serious casualties on Anglo-American troops by repeatedly strafing the invasion beaches at Villa San Giovanni and Reggio Calabria, then attacked U.S. landing craft, sinking four LCTs and damaging several others before being bounced by 30 Spitfires." The Axis Air Forces: Flying in Support of the German Luftwaffe, Frank Joseph, p. 23, ABC-CLIO, 2011In danger of being captured by the German Paratroop forces in the Battle of Rome, Badoglio and the Italian Royal Family were forced to escape to Pescara where a government was set up under the protection of the Allies. The Granatieri Di Sardegna Division stands its ground in Rome for two days, preventing the Germans from taking part in the Battle of Salerno and throwing the struggling Allies back into the sea."After the Salerno landing the Germans had to fight the "Granatieri di Sardegna" division and other units for two days before taking control of Rome." That kept German units occupied around Rome who otherwise might have been at the Salerno beachhead during the critical first days after the landing." Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943-1945, Charles Messenger, p. 90, Lexington Books, 2001 On 13 October the Italian government declared war on Germany. While the Allies were landing in Italy, Adolf Hitler sent Otto Skorzeny and group of SS commandos to rescue Mussolini, who was being held in the Abruzzi Apennines. Mussolini was soon freed and Skorzeny flew him to safety. After a short stay in Germany Mussolini was sent to Gargagno in German-occupied northern Italy where he established the Fascist Salo Republic. On September 9 1943, German troops landed Bastia"Elsewhere, fighting between the erstwhile allies had already erupted. At Bastia, in Corsica, German navy troops seized the harbor at midnight ... Italian troops counterattacked early that morning and drove the Germans from their positions." Struggle for the Middle Sea: The Great Navies at War in the Mediterranean Theater, 1940-1945, Vincent O'Hara, p. 220, Naval Institute Press, 2009, the principal port of Corsica. Over the next four weeks, the Friuli and Cremona Divisions"Only one hundred French troops landed on Corsica on September 12th, three days after fighting began at midnight on September 9th between the Germans and Italians when the Germans attacked Bastia ... The Italians had 74,000 men in Corsica including the "Cremona" and "Friuli" divisions. However, most of the troops were in coastal defense and support units ... When the Germans attacked Bastia on September 9th, the Italians fought the Germans alone ... the Italians ... deserve every credit for their part in the battle. The Italians on Corsica kept their arms ... The Italian units on Corsica moved to Sardinia and ... became "Gruppi di Combattimento" or Combat Groups and fought alongside the Allies. The Anglo-American version of events in Corsica, as well as those of the French, are examples of how official histories reinforced other mistaken accounts of what happened in the Italian Campaign." Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943-1945, Charles T. O'Reilly, p. 92, Lexington Books, 2001and Regia Marina"After the Armistice many small unit surface actions occurred in the western Mediterranean beginning on the morning of 9 September 1943. The German navy launched a surprise attack to capture the port of Bastia in northern Corsica. When this failed, a small flotilla consisting of UJ2203, UJ22119, five MFPs, and a rescue launch fled the harbor. The Italian destroyer escort Aliseo engaged them and sank all eight (with belated help from shore batteries and a corvette). Italian corvettes had several other skirmishes with German coastal craft and shore batteries at Piombino sank TA11 before the Italian navy withdrew south in accordance with the terms of the armistice." The German Fleet at War, 1939-1945, Vincent O'Hara, Naval Institute Press, 2013, which had taken the side of new Italian government of Marshal Badoglio, drove the German 90th and 91st Panzergrenadier Divisions back into the sea."The more the fight intensified, the more their determination to defeat the Germans and drive them out of the island increased. The Italians knew the territory well, so as each German group tried to enter the main roads where the Italians had established positions, the Germans suffered great losses. In many cases, in order to expedite their exodus to Bastia to join the other Germans, they rendered inoperable or even destroyed large amounts of their own equipment and abandoned it. They also abandoned eight hundred of their men, who were promptly taken prisoner." The Ibex Trophy, John Cammalleri; Salvatore Cammalleri, p. 124, iUniverse, 2011"The Nazis were eventually chased to their bridgehead at Bastia, where, with air support and far superior numbers, they were able to embark for Italy. In total, the liberation of Corsica left 75 French soldiers dead, 245 Italians and around 1,000 Germans." The Resistance: The French Fight Against the Nazis, Matthew Cobb, p. 193, Simon and Schuster, 2009 On 23 September 1943, Pietro Badoglio and General Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Italian armistice. However, the entire Regia Aeronautica"Unlike the Regia Marina, the Regia Aeronautica went over almost in its entirety to the Salo Republic, where it became the Aeronautica Nazionale Republicana (ANR)." Mussolini's War, Frank Joseph, p. 192, Helion and Company, 2010and Nembo Airborne Infantry Division"A significant part of the Italian 184th (Nembo) Parachute Division went over to the German side and served actively with the Germans." The Mediterranean Theater of Operations: Sicily and the Surrender of Italy, Lieutenant Colonel Albert N. Garland, p. 535, UNITED STATES ARMY, 1993continued to fight alongside the Germans and the Allied armies made only slow progress as the moved north towards Rome. Two Bersaglieri battalions of the Emilia Division in Yugoslavia and the 9th Blackshirts Battalion in Greece joined the Germans. Bersaglieri and Italian Marines took control of Naples on 1 October"Until the Allies arrived there has been havoc and the city is wrecked as a result of Allied bombing, German demolitions and the pitched battles which Italian regular army Bersaglieri regiments loyal to the King have been fighting with the Germans. When we arrived, there was shooting everywhere. Even six and eight year old boys were shooting, firing abandoned weapons into the air in play. Disregarding the fighting, civilians turned out all over the city to give the Americans and British a thunderous ovation. The German rearguards, caught by the speed of the Allied advance from Torre Annunziata, had seized scores of Italians youths, old men and women as hostages and retreated with them into public buildings to fight the Bersaglieri. Civilians took courage from the Bersaglieri, and commandeered all available vehicles which they raced along the streets firing at every German at every German in sight." Yanks Busy With Clearing of Naples, By Herny T. Gorrell, p. 5 Valley Morning Star 3 October 1943"On the morning of September 28, Allied ships were spotted off Capri and the Neapolitans believed a landing was imminent. Attacks on the Germans resumed, particularly in the Vomero district on the west side of the city. Spontaneous uprisings began all over Naples. People seized weapons from the arsenals of the disbanded Italian armed forces, which had been left unguarded by the Germans, and by the afternoon of the next day the Germans were under attack. Bands of gunmen darted out of hiding places to strike at the Germans, then disappeared into the maze of alleys and side streets that honeycomb Naples. The first impulse of Colonel Scholl was to leave the city, but Hitler ordered Naples reduced to "mud and ashes." Scholl threatened to kill 100 civilians for every German soldier wounded or killed. The Germans destroyed scores of houses and businesses, cut of water supplies and left port facilities in ruins. They planned to blow up aqueducts and power plants before they departed. On September 29, the Germans sent a long line of tanks toward the city center. But partisan units destroyed several tanks with cannon fire, immobilized the rest and blew them up with mines." Mussolini: The Last 600 Days of Il Duce, Ray Moseley, p. 35, Taylor Trade Publications, 2004and later that day the British 8th Army captured the Foggia airfields. General Albrecht Kesselring now withdrew his forces to what became known as the Gustav Line on the Italian peninsula south of Rome. Organized along the Garigliano and Rapido rivers it included Monte Cassino, a hilltop site of a sixth-century Benedictine monastery. Defended by 15 German divisions the line was fortified with concrete bunkers, barbed-wire and minefields. In December 1943, the Allies suffered heavy loses while trying to capture the monastery. In January 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Harold Alexander, Supreme Allied Commander in Italy, ordered a new Cassino offensive combined with an amphibious landing at Anzio, a small port on the west coast of Italy. The main objective of the operation was to cut the communication lines of the German 10th Army and force a withdrawal from the Gustav Line. Attacks on Monte Cassino on 17 January resulted in the Germans reserves moving to the Gustav Line and on 22 January, Allied troops under General John Lucas landed at Anzio. Lucas decided not to push straight away to the interior hills. This enabled the Fascist authorities in Rome to order the Vendetta and Debica Italian Waffen SS Battalions, Nembo Airborne Battalion, and the Barbarigo Marine Battalion to the area, along with the San Giorgio, Colleoni and Da Giussano Artillery Battalions to help contain the 6th Corps on the Anzio beachhead. On 12 February the exhausted US Army at Cassino were replaced by the New Zealand Corps. Alexander now decided to use the New Zealanders in another attempt to capture Cassino. General Bernard Freyberg, who was in charge of the infantry attack, asked for the monastery be bombed. Despite evidence that no fire was coming from the monastery, General Harold Alexander agreed and it was destroyed by the United States Air Force on 15 February 1944. Once the monastery had been bombed, the German paratroopers moved into the ruins and the rubble provided much cover. On 18h May 1944, General Wladyslaw Anders' Polish Corps and General Alphonse Juin's French Corps captured Monte Cassino. This opened a corridor for Allied troops and they reached Anzio on 24 May. The German defence now began to crumble and General Harold Alexander ordered General Mark Clark to trap and destroy the retreating German 10th Army. However, Clark ignored this order and instead headed for Rome and liberated the city on 4 June. American casualties at Anzio alone were 59,000. The Italian Monte Rosa, Italia and San Marco Divisions under General Mario Carloni, entrenched on the west side of the Gothic Line, brought the mobile American, British and Brazilian forces in the Serchio Valley to a grinding halt for several months. However, an Italo-German counteroffensive in December 1944 aimed at taking the Allied supply port of Livorno during the Battle of Garfagnana, became bogged down in the face of fierce Allied air attacks.Strong Allied air and ground forces were thrown into battle today in an effort to halt the German assault on a six-mile front in the Serchio river valley, where American doughboys have been driven from the important road town of Barga in two days of fierce fighting. The Germans declared that the U.S. 92nd division had been knocked back "some kilometres", which evidently was aimed at the vital Allied supply port of Livorno (Leghorn) ... The Allied tactical air forces hurled the full fury of their bombs, cannon and machineguns against the attacking enemy, with well over 1,000 warplanes participating in the headlong strikes against troop concentrations, gun posts, occupied buildings and road junctions in the battle area. American Thunderbolt and Mustang fighters and Mitchell medium bombers were joined by British and South African Spitfires and Kittyhawks in the blistering assault. Many fires and explosions were seen around Barga and two towns in the immediate northwest, Castelnuovo and Gallicano. GERMANS PUSH AHEAD ON WEST COAST OF SICILY, The Lewiston Daily Sun, 29 December 1944On 2 May 1945, the 75th German Army Corps under General Ernst Schlemmer surrendered in Biella to the Communist partisan commanders, with Captain Patrick Amoore of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) acting as the go-between. The Allied invasion of Italy, launched with much optimism after the Allied victory in Sicily in August 1943, turned into a brutal, protracted campaign, and costly civil war. After the Italian Fascist Regime fell from power and was replaced by a new Badoglio Government, the Italian Campaign became an entangled battle between advancing Allied troops and Communist partisans and German and RSI defenders. Monte Cassino, Anzio and the Serchio Valley pushed many Allied soldiers to their breaking point. The military campaign ended only when the fighting in Berlin ended. By then, more than 300,000 US and British Commonwealth troops who fought in Italy had been killed or were wounded or captured or missing. German casualties totaled around 434,000. References Category:North African Campaign Category:1941 Category:1940